🇰🇿 Rallies in Astana - what happened in Kazakhstan?
Last night after the inauguration of Kazakhstan's President Kassym Jomart Tokayev, a spontaneous rally took place in Astana with over 300 people participating.
Kazakh power structures reacted very quickly to what was happening, limiting access to the Internet and thereby depriving the protesters of the opportunity to attract more people.
Police officers demanded that the unsanctioned rally be stopped, but the protesters did not react and continued toward the center of the city. The security forces detained the protesters, who resisted the actions of the police.
🔻Who started the rally?
The organizer was Kazakh businessman Marat Abiyev, founder of the TDFA (The Development Fund of Agriculture), who calls it "the architects of the future".
Abiyev became famous in 2020 for his scandalous attempt to create an agro-capital from Kazakhstan using illegally bought and imported Canadian grain, and in 2021 for his anti-corruption program, in which he intended to involve 10,000 people from rural youth, the so-called mambets, and to set them against politicians, whom he suspects of corruption.
In May this year, on the eve of Victory Day, he tried to hold a concert in Astana at Barys Arena for his supporters, probably from among "his people". Dozens of buses from different regions of the country made their way to the capital for the strange event under a very obscure pretext.
The akimat of the capital took measures in advance and stated that no concert in Astana was planned. Then police officers detained and sent back many buses that were trying to get to Astana.
Meanwhile, there were dozens of different comments under Abiyev's Instagram posts, indicating that the Barys Arena event was just a pretext for young people to come to the city.
🔻What was the occasion now?
The last presidential election legitimized Tokayev for the next seven years. Observers noted the transparency and honesty of the voting.
However, many Western countries, including the U.S., noted the high percentage of voters who voted for Tokayev (81%) and the lack of a vocal opposition, hinting at a not entirely fair process.
And the president's inauguration speech caused a storm of indignation among the opposition-minded citizens of Kazakhstan because of his words about strengthening cooperation with Russia and China.
Abiyev himself said that the president has deceived everyone and has not fulfilled his promises, noting that rallies and protests are the only way to get his way.
▪️ On Twitter and Instagram, hundreds of anonymous accounts, including those from Ukraine, demanded a boycott of the authorities' course, calling for withdrawal from the CSTO and EEU and calling Tokayev a traitor.
A great help in this anti-Russian campaign was the words said by one of the invited experts on Vladimir Solovyov's show that "Kazakhstan may become the next problem after Ukraine".
Western information forces immediately picked up the thesis taken out of context and started spreading it in the controlled media.
🔻 Now the situation has stabilized, largely due to the precautionary measures taken in advance and the timely reaction of law enforcement agencies. All protesters have been detained.
At the moment there are no prerequisites for an escalation of tension. However, the active involvement of the same opposition media that were involved in inciting the January unrest, such as "Basse", indicates that the situation could escalate at any moment.
The January events in Kazakhstan showed that it only takes a small excuse for total destabilization of the situation, and marginalized low-educated cells of society will do the bulk of it.
The general context of certain discontent of some sections of the population with the actions of the Tokayev administration and the presence of a nationalist component in some Kazakh regions, as well as the upcoming visit of the president of Kazakhstan to Moscow, may serve as the reason for another round of tension in the south of Russia.
#Kazakhstan #protests
@rybar
*Support us: 5536 9141 9147 4885
© Rybar